Lois Lane: Triple Threat

Since seeing Gwenda Bond at ReadUp Greenville in October, I’ve read all three of her Lois Lane books.  She’s taken the iconic Lois Lane character and given her a spunky, sassy personality.  This third book in the series is no different.

Teenage investigative reporter Lois Lane has seen some weird things since moving to Metropolis:  cloning, mind-melding experiments, and cyber bullying.  Through it all, Lois has found a set of in real life friends (something she’s never had before because of moving around for her dad’s army job) and online friends (like her mysterious SmallvilleGuy).  In this book, Metropolis is full of weird sightings of silver-tinged teens doing superhuman things, like lifting cars and flying.  Lois decides to start investigating for her newest Scoop article but soon realizes that these teens have an odd fascination with her.  To make things more complicated, her cyber-maybe-more-than-a-friend SmallvilleGuy is coming to Metropolis for a birthday trip which means they will finally get to meet in real life.  Lois is also still trying to figure out if another online acquaintance TheInventor is a friend or foe, especially when he leaks a list of usernames to the government to retaliate for Lois’s snooping.

This book focuses more on Lois’s personal life than her news story this time, which is fine, but it makes the news story seem like an add-on story. She does (finally) figure out why these silver kids are trying to recruit her, but it wasn’t because of her investigative skills.  She found out more because she lied to her friends and charged into trouble without thinking things through.  

Overall, it was good book, especially since you’re already invested in the characters and their outcomes from the previous books.

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe

I love Pride and Prejudice.  It’s my favorite classic novel for many reasons that I will not go into here (see this post for all my P&P love).  And because I love the original story so much, I’ve read lots of retellings and modern adaptations, like Eligible and Jane in Austin.  Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe tops that list.  

I know, I know…it’s written as a fluffy Christmas story, and it is.  But it’s also more than that.  The author captured the original angst of the story and the misconstrued intentions perfectly, even if the setting is modern.  There are also a few other changes I enjoyed, like the role reversals.  In this story Darcy Fitzwilliam is an independent, self-made woman who has a fantastically lucrative career in New York City.  But when her mother has a heart attack, she must go back to Pemberly, PA, her hometown that she hasn’t been to in eight years.  There she reconnects with her best friend Bingley Charles and her neighbors, the Bennett boys.  

Another change I liked was the story being told from Darcy’s point of view.  Most retellings stick with Jane and the Bennett sisters, since they are the main focus of the original novel, but I enjoyed being in Darcy’s head throughout all the confusing, conflicting feelings she’s having for Luke Bennett, her old high school rival.  I was expecting the novel to flip back and forth between the two points of view, but by sticking with Darcy, the story seemed more honest and truthful.  

Could I have used a few more details throughout the story?  Sure, being only 225 pages.

Did I read this practically in one sitting?  Why yes, I did.

Did I throughly enjoy it?  Most definitely.

You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

The thing I love about my book club is the fact that it gets me out of my reading comfort zone.  When you’re in a group with a dozen other people, there’s a very diverse pull for what books to read.  Some I’ve been pleasantly surprised with, but sometimes you come up with a dud, like this month’s book.

Augusten Burroughs is a nonfiction writer who writes about his life in a very satirical way, much in the same writing style as David Sedaris.  From what I gathered from our book discussion, this book is in the same vein as his other books.  Burroughs wrote seven short stories about different Christmases he’s experienced over the years.  Some parts are slightly humorous, like when he tricks his parents into buying all the presents on his list by demanding a horse or when his newly renovated house floods.  But mostly it just made me depressed and feel sorry for him, like the Christmas he didn’t remember because he was blackout drunk or the last Christmas he spent with his AIDS-infected boyfriend.

What I really wanted to read was a hilariously funny set of Christmas stories, but instead what I got was story after story of hardships and confusion and struggles, like a tasteless cookie with some sprinkles on top to try and make it look better.

Love a la Mode

This book is pure sugar and spice.  Rosie and Henry meet on the airplane to Paris, and soon realize they are both heading to the same place, an exclusive cooking school founded by Chef Laurent.  They are both excited and overwhelmed with their experience—Rosie with her lackluster cooking skills since she’s a pastry chef and Henry with keeping up with his academics and the pressure by his overbearing mother—but as the semester continues on, they realize that their connection is more than just as friends.

Honestly, this book was predictable.  The cooking school part was interesting, along with the diverse mix of characters from all over the world—30 kids from America to Sweden to Germany to England—but the whole story seemed very fluffy.  I kept mentally yelling at the book, “Why don’t you just talk to him/her instead of saying it in your head?  Then all the tension and drama would be resolved.”  

Did I enjoy reading it?  Sure.  Would I be okay handing this off to a high schooler, or even a middle schooler?  Sure.  I just felt like the characters could have been developed more and the teen hormonal drama toned down a smidge.  

**This book was just published!  Thanks to Net Galley and Disney-Hyperion for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.**